


Whatever You Say Pretty Boy

by sledge_1951



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29915160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sledge_1951/pseuds/sledge_1951
Summary: Julia Hoàng is Tony Stark's assistant and after Loki steals the Tesseract from SHIELD, she is thrown in a crazy world, much bigger than anything she's had to deal before.
Relationships: Avengers Team & Reader, Avengers Team/Original Female Character(s), Loki (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Loki (Marvel)/Reader, Steve Rogers & Reader, Tony Stark & Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. The Avengers Initiative

**Author's Note:**

> This story begins at the start of the first Avengers movie and follows the current MCU timeline up until Age of Ultron. I haven't written past then so I'm honestly not sure where the story will go from there. 
> 
> This originally started out as my script for my DR but once I got to a point where I had over 50 pages of material I thought "What the hell, maybe someone else out there will find this worth a read." Because this was my script for shifting I used my name and wrote it in first person so if that's not your thing sorry. I also wrote this with the intention of shifting to be with Loki so that's why this is tagged in Loki/OC. But the Loki romance stuff wont happen until much later so pls bear with me. 
> 
> This is my first and probably my last time writing a fic so go easy on me pls. I'll try to update as much as I can but school is whack so consider my posting schedule non-existent.

I’m sitting in the lounge area of the ‘party deck’ as Tony has started to call it. I'm pretty sure at this point every floor of the newly built Stark Tower had some kind of nickname given to it. Pepper was standing anxiously over a projection of the power levels of the tower. I’ve never been too good with Tony’s inventions like this so I just stayed focused on my work, which at the moment was editing some notes for Tony’s press conference the next day. Notes which, I knew for a fact he was going to stray from. But still, it made me feel good to know that they were there if he ever decided to use them. 

“Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you,” Tony spoke through the comms to Pepper.

“You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?”

“Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy.”

“Well, that's assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works,” I said looking up from my tablet. Pepper turned to look at me, surprise painted on her face. “What? Just because I don't fully understand what you guys are doing over there doesn’t I don’t listen.”

“I assume,” Tony cut Pepper off before she could respond to me, “Light her up.”

Pepper entered something into the projection in front of her and I rose from my seat to get a good view of Tony landing on the tower’s balcony. “How does it look?” Pepper asked excitedly.

“Like Christmas, but with more . . . me,” Tony quipped back. I sighed but Pepper seemed unfazed by his antics. She always was. At most he would get a chuckle or small smile out of her but from me he would always get at least and eye roll.

Pepper turned to me, brushing off Tony’s comment, “We’ve got to go wider on the public awareness campaign,” I grabbed my tablet and began to look at my notes for Tony’s schedule as Pepper spun around to face the balcony where we could see Tony flying in.

“Tony, you need to actually do some press,” I reminded him.

Pepper turned back to me as she started to run through her own schedule, “I’m in DC tomorrow, I’m working on the zoning for the next three buildings-”

She was abruptly cut off by Tony again, “Pep, shorty, you’re killing me. The moment, remember? Enjoy the moment.” The nickname Tony had picked out for me was both unoriginal and anger inducing but I shrugged it off most of the time. 

“Get in here and I will.” Pepper replied in a sultry tone. 

“Jesus, you guys are getting too comfortable with me being around all the time.”

Tony landed on the balcony and his machinery came up from the floor to take off his suit. As he came I heard him say, “I’m not in. I’m actually out.” He was probably responding to something JARVIS had said in his earpiece. As he continued to walk along the platform I began to pick up my things, getting ready to retreat to my room once the Stark/Potts ‘mating dance’ inevitably began. 

“Levels are holding steady, I think.” Pepper said, continuing to look over the tower’s power levels. 

“Of course they are. I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?”

“Well I really wouldn’t know now would I?”

“What do you mean? All this came from you.”

“No, all of this came from that.”

“Give yourself some credit please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself . . . 12% of the credit.”

“12%?”

“An argument can be made for 15.”

“And that's my cue to leave.” I half yelled from the other side of the room. 

“No no Julia, you’re gonna celebrate with us. Be a doll and grab the champagne. ”

“I don’t wanna have to suffer the second-hand embarrassment of watching you dig yourself into a hole you can’t get out of Stark.”

“She's right you know.”

“And not that you ever listen to me but, Pepper definitely deserves more than 15%.”

“Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. Oh and sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you guys.”

“Oh here we go again,” I said as I only half reluctantly sat back down on the couch. 

“My private elevator-”

“You mean our elevator?” Pepper cut him off, gesturing to the three of us.

“It was . . . teeming with sweaty workmen.” Tony sat on the couch with me and Pepper and she gave him a kind of ‘are you serious’ look. Tony took a second before he continued to speak and I slipped on my champagne. “ I’m going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren’t I?”

“Not gonna be that subtle.”

“Gross.” Tony glared at me after I said that before looking back at Pepper.

“I’ll tell you what. The next building is gonna say ‘Potts’ on the side.”

“On the lease.”

“Call your mom, can you bunk over?”

“Sir, the telephone. I’m afraid my protocols are being overridden.”

“Mr. Stark, we need to talk.” Tony grabbed his phone and passed it to me. So this explains what he was talking about on the balcony. Usually, JARVIS would forward calls like this to my cell so it was strange that whoever this was, was able to get Tony’s personal phone. 

I stepped away from Pepper and Tony before answering in my perfected customer service voice, “This is Julia Hoàng of Stark Industries speaking, Mr. Stark is unavailable at the moment but can I take a message for you?”

“Ms. Hoàng, I need to speak with Mr. Stark now. This is urgent.”

“Wait a minute,” it took a second to hit me but the voice on the other end sounded very familiar, “Coulson?” Both Pepper and Tony's heads perked up as I said the name and at that moment the elevator opened to reveal an unhappy looking agent of SHIELD. 

“Security breach!” Tony exclaimed in annoyance. 

“Phil! Come in.”

“Phil?! His first name is ‘Agent’.” Tony said with confusion. I had only met the agent a few times before regarding Iron Man stuff but had never gotten on a first name basis with the guy. Even though Tony had known him longer than me, they never really talked to each other as it was Pepper's and my job to work with SHIELD to clean up his Iron Man escapades.

Pepper and Tony got up from the couch to greet him but I was closest to the door so I got to him first. “Ms. Hoàng.” he spoke as we shook hands.

“Agent Coulson,” I nodded in response, “It's nice to see you again.”

“Likewise.”

“We’re celebrating,” Pepper said as she came up to the two of us. 

“I'm sorry but I can’t stay.” Phil spoke soberly as he pulled out what looked like a large black folder with the SHIELD emblem on it. “We need you to look this over as soon as possible.”

“I don't like being handed things.” Tony snarked at Coulson.

I nodded at Coulson, but before I could grab the folder from him Pepper intercepted me saying, “That's fine, because I love to be handed things so let's trade.” She smiled, handed him her champagne glass and walked away with Tony to go look at the folder, leaving me alone with Coulson.

“So, I would ask if you’re alright but considering you came here on urgent SHIELD business and the fact that you look like you just saw a ghost, I’m going to guess something is up.”

“Yes, something big.”

“Am I allowed to know about it?” I leaned in curiously while taking another sip of my champagne. 

“I don't know if you want to.”

“Well now I just wanna know even more.”

He sighed and began to slowly walk closer to Tony and Pepper, “This is about the Avengers Initiative.”

“Wait really?! Then why are you here? I filled out Tony’s application with him, he didn’t even qualify.”

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore.” After he said that I heard a faint roar come from where Tony was. Images and videos of Captain America, a green monster looking thing, and a blonde haired man that I didn’t recognize played on the projections in the room. 

“What’s going on here Coulson?”

“That's your briefing over there,” he gestured to the holograms, “but in summary, you and Mr. Stark need to come in for a mission.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait, me? I get Tony but me?”

“You and Ms. Potts are the only ones capable of keeping him somewhat in line and-”

“And Tony's not gonna let Pepper anywhere near the danger.” I finished the thought for him. 

“I was going to say because Ms. Potts will most likely be busy but yes,” Coulson stopped and we both turned our gaze to Tony and Pepper who were deep in conversation, “that too.”

After he said that Pepper gave Tony a kiss and came over to walk Coulson and herself out. I made my way next to Tony to get a closer look at the folder, “So, where do we start.”

Tony spun to look at me with shock on his face, “Um, you’re not coming.”

“Coulson said that I have to.”

“Well what the hell does Coulson know.”

“He knows that without me there you’re bound to screw something up,” I teased, not actually meaning it which Tony knew.

“Well then, I say let's start with this.” He pointed to a projection of a blue cube and a picture of a man in gold and green armor. The man had jet black hair which had been slicked back and he wore a devilish expression on his face. 

“What the hell did we just get ourselves into.”

“No idea, but you’d better get to studying cuz we leave in the morning.”

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Where do you think?” He said as he walked to the elevator, “I gotta run down to the lab and tweak some things on the Mark VII.”

“The one with the bracelets?”

“Yup that's the one. Still working out the kinks.”

“Ok well don't stay up to long. Looks like we’re gonna have a long day tomorrow.”

“No promises,” Tony said as he got into the elevator and the doors shut in front of him.

I turned to look back at the projections coming from the folder. Seems like I’m in for a long night too. I sighed. “I’m gonna make some coffee.”

~Later that night~

Both Tony and I had trouble sleeping at night so it wasn’t uncommon that we would find ourselves sitting in a comfortable silence together in the kitchen or living area of the tower. Usually he would be tinkering with something on the counter just so he could have a change of scenery and I would be working, reading, or cooking something for the two of us. Tonight, Tony had brought up his bracelet things and had parts spread out all over the island countertop. I was sitting across from him reading up on all the briefing info Coulson had given us.

“This is strange.” I said to myself but just loud enough so Tony could hear.

“What, the 100 year old fighting machine, the jolly green giant or point break?” Tony remarked sarcastically, not looking up from his work.

“No not that, well yes that I guess but that's not what I was talking about.”

“Well what were you talking about?”

“I mean this.” I pulled up the file I wanted him to read and moved the folder across the counter to him. I began to speak as Tony read the file, “Why the hell is an intervention, enforcement and logistics agency interested in renewable energy. That's like if the FBI suddenly became very invested in saving the turtles. It just doesn't sit right with me.”

“You don't think SHIELD is using the Tesseract for renewable energy testing.”

“More like I don’t think they’re giving us the whole truth. I’m just saying we should take everything they tell us with a grain of salt, but don't tell Coulson or Fury I said that.”


	2. Meeting The Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Loki is captured, Julia meets the rest of the avengers as they work to try and uncover Loki's plan.

“So I’ll see you back on the helicarrier once we’ve got this Loki guy.” Tony spoke as he stepped into his suit. We were standing on the roof of Stark tower as Tony was preparing to meet up with Black Widow and Captain America in Germany where SHIELD had just found Loki. 

“Right, you mean if?” I said cautiously, putting emphasis on the word if. 

“What?”

“If you get Loki.” 

“Don’t worry shorty we’ll get him. Plus I’ve got captain spangles and the scariest woman alive on my side, how could I lose.”

“Just be careful Tony, those files said this guy is basically like,” I struggled to find the right words to summarize what I had read the previous night, “well, like a god.”

“Careful is my middle name babe.” He gave me a wink and with that Tony took off in his suit, headed for Germany. Afterward, I boarded a quinjet provided by SHIELD that would take me to the helicarrier where the team would regroup after the mission. 

~Later, after Germany~

“They got him!” Coulson came into the room that I was given on the helicarrier.

“Oh thank god.” I went up to the docking area to greet Tony whose suit looked a lot more banged up compared to when he left. “What the hell happened to you?”

“A god of thunder, that's what.”

“Wait what, Thor showed up?! When?”

“While we were on our way back with rock of ages over there.” Tony gestured to the quitjet as he walked away to get his suit off.

Just then, the two gods in question stepped out of the quinjet, along with the 100 year old super soldier and the black widow. Loki was the first to be let out. He was in handcuffs and completely surrounded by SHIELD agents. He seemed to notice me watching and shot me a smirk and all of a sudden my head felt really weird. Tony must have noticed the uncomfortable look on my face because the second he got out of his Iron Man suit he came over and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey kid, you alright?” he asked like a worried father.

I pulled my gaze away from Loki and used Tony’s arm to ground myself before turning back only to see that Loki was gone, and so was my headache, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine I just. . . I just, I don't know.”

Before I could finish my thought the two blonde haired superheroes came over and we all began to walk inside the helicarrier. Tony and Coulson stayed behind to take a look at Tony’s damaged suit while I walked the captain and the god inside.

“It's a pleasure to meet you Captain Rogers, Thor.” I extended my hand for them to shake.

“The honor in mine lady-” Thor stopped realizing that he didn’t know my name.

“Julia. Julia Hoàng. I work for Mr. Stark but if either of you need anything just ask.”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Hoàng.” Captain Rogers spoke in a soft voice.

We continued to walk through the helicarrier till we made it to the bridge. Just in time too because it seemed they had just gotten Loki into his holding cell and Director Fury was now interrogating him. On our way in I waved at Natasha who I had met once during one of my run-ins with SHIELD. She sat on one side of the table watching the feed intently, raising her head only for a moment to nod and acknowledge me. Thor moved to lean against the railing and Dr. Banner, who I had known was on board but hadn't gotten the chance to meet yet, was standing at the back of the table watching the feed. Captain Rogers sat down on the other side of the table from Natasha and I moved to stand behind him so I could get a good view of the screen in front of him. 

“In case it's unclear,” Fury began, “if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass,” Fury pushed some buttons on the control panel in front of him and the floor beneath Loki’s cell opened. This released a gust of wind that could be heard through the monitor. “30,000 feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?” Fury closed the doors again before looking back at Loki, “Ant, boot.”

Loki grinned and took a few steps back while letting out a faint chuckle, “It's an impressive cage. Not built I think, for me.”

“Built for something a lot stronger than you”

“Oh, I’ve heard.” Loki turned to face one of the cameras to address us, and more specially, Bruce, “A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man.” Loki then turned back to Fury, “How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

I looked up from the screen to see that Thor was now facing the bridge but seemed to be lost in thought. I assumed he was probably going through a lot right now, if what SHIELD’s files on him said were true. Fury’s voice pulled me from my thoughts and I looked back at the screen. 

“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill cus it’s fun.” Loki lowered his head slightly, as if he was trying to stare Fury down, “You have made me very desperate and you might not be glad that you did.”

“Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what?” He chuckled again and turned back to the camera, “A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is.” He said the last bit in a low tone that almost sounded like a growl that sent a shiver down my spine. 

Fury shook his head and began to walk out of the room, “Well let me know if ‘real power’ wants a magazine or something.”

After a moment of silence Loki walked closer to the camera until the screen on the table shut off. I stepped back and my shoulders tensed, worried what he might do while we weren't watching. 

Dr. Banner was the first to speak saying, “He really grows on you doesn't he?”

“I don't know if that's what I would call it.” I responded.

“Loki’s gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?” the captain asked in a determined tone. 

Thor spoke deeply, but still looking like his mind was somewhere else, “He has an army called the Chitauri. They’re not of Asgard nor any world known.” Thor walked over to the table with the rest of us before speaking again, “He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return I suspect for the Tesseract.” 

“An army.” Captain Rogers confirmed.

“From outer space?” I said, still trying to wrap my mind around it.

“So he's building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.” Dr. Banner began to pace while running through what we knew.

“Selvig?” Thor questioned.

“He's an astrophysicist.” Dr. Banner clarified. 

Thor tensed a bit before responding, “He's a friend.”

“Wasn’t he there in New Mexico with you?” I asked Thor remembering the name from the briefing. Thor gave me a small nod before Natasha continued.

“Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.”

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here.” Captain Rogers said, a hint of worry in his voice.

“I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him.” Dr. Banner said.

“Have care how you speak,” Thor stepped forward, “Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother.”

“He killed 80 people in two days.” I stated. 

“He's adopted.” Thor said, lowering his head some.

“I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the iridium for?” I could tell Dr. Banner really didn't want to keep talking about Loki, I can't really blame him though. 

“It's a stabilizing agent.” Tony strolled into the room and whispered something to Coulson on his way in.

I could tell the captain was confused because he had the same look on his face that I had when I first read the briefing. I tried to explain some more the way Tony had for me, knowing he wouldn't do that for anyone here. “He means so the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD.”

“No hard feelings, point break. You've got a mean swing.” Tony passed Thor, giving him a small pat on the shoulder. 

I continued to explain what Tony and I knew as Tony made his way up to the main control panel by Agent Hill. “It also means the portal can stay open as wide and as long as Loki wants.” Captain Rogers nodded in understanding as I spoke.

“Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails.” All movement on the bridge froze for a second as everyone in the room turned to look at Tony. “That man is playing Galaga. Thought we wouldn't notice but we did.” I rolled my eyes and walked past Captain Rogers to get closer to Tony, who was currently covering one of his eyes while looking at the control panels, “How does Fury even see these?”

“He turns.” Agent Hill responded matter of factly. 

“Sounds exhausting.” Tony continued explaining what we knew about Loki’s plan, “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density, something to . . . kick start the cube.”

“When did you two become experts in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill asked, looking at me and Tony. 

“No no.” I said putting my hands in the air, “I’m no expert.”

“Last night.” Tony tried to answer for the both of us. Captain Rogers looked baffled while Natasha was unfazed, Thor seemed impressed and Dr. Banner was just looking at Tony. “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers?” Tony continued as he walked closer to the captain. He leaned closer to me as he passed and said just loud enough for everyone to hear, “I think we’re the only ones who did the reading?”

“No shit.”

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Captain Rogers asked.

“He would have to heat the cube to 120-million kelvin just to break through the coulomb barrier.” Dr. Banner answered, looking up while fidgeting with his glasses. 

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.” Tony added.

“Well if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.” If I hadn't asked Tony to explain all this to me last night it would have been like the two of them were speaking in a different language. 

“Finally someone who speaks english.” Tony said, pushing past me and Captain Rogers to shake hands with Dr. Banner.

“Is that what just happened?” Captain Rogers turned back to ask me.

“I’m afraid so Captain,” I sighed as I also pushed past Captain Rogers to follow Tony. 

“It’s good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster.”

“Tony!” I put my hand on his shoulder and scolded him. We really didn't need Dr. Banner hulking out right now, especially at Tony’s fault. 

“Thanks,” Dr. Banner responded awkwardly. 

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.” Fury came into the room.

“I would start with that sick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” Captain Rogers suggested.

“I don't know about that” Fury replied, “but it is powered by the cube. And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys? I do not understand.” Thor looked up, confused. 

“I do!” Captain Rogers exclaimed, “I understood that reference.” Tony rolled his eyes and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. 

“Shall we play, Doctor?” Tony put his arm around my shoulder and looked at Dr. Banner.

“Right this way,” he said, pointing to the lab.


End file.
